Saturday, May 15, 2010

The Tanzania Employment Services Agency (TaESA) has called for mandatory use of Kiswahili as the official language for interviewing employment seekers after commencement of the East African Community (EAC) free labour movement. Speaking during a stakeholder’s workshop in Dar es Salaam recently, TaESA Chief Executive Officer Eliezer Mwasele said most Tanzanian graduates have difficulty with the English language, which may affect their chances in the EAC labour market competition “Tanzanians fear the EAC free labour movement due to difficulty with the English language. We would like to suggest the use of Kiswahili as the official language for conducting interviews, so that our people can have confidence”, he said adding that in most cases, Tanzanians applying for various posts through TaESA find it difficult to express themselves in English. Other challenges he noted facing graduates is poor CV writing and lack of interview skills.Acting Secretary General of the Trade Union Congress of Tanzania (TUCTA), Nicholaus Mgaya.

Mwasele said since the agency was established in 2008, it has succeeded to find jobs for 670 people. He said that there are also more than 30 Tanzanians who have been employed in different companies abroad under the umbrella of TaESA. For his part, the Acting Secretary General of the Trade Union Congress of Tanzania (TUCTA), Nicholaus Mgaya supported the move saying without making Kiswahili the official interview language, Tanzanians will end up being observers in the EAC labour market. According to him, the government should make efforts to convince the other EAC members to accept the use of Kiswahili as the official interview language. Meanwhile, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Youth Development, Kijakazi Mtengwa said youth unemployment is on the increase. She also noted that youth immigration to urban centres remains a major problem. According to her, efforts are being made to formulate and revise existing policies, laws and regulations to suit the current trends in the labour market. The government aim of setting up TaESA was to ensure effective delivery of employment services. In the 1980s the government was the main employer for graduates from higher learning institutions but due to global economic changes the private sector has now become a major employer. In the year 2001 the then Ministry of Labour, Youth Development and Sports established the Labour Exchange Centre (LEC) as a pilot project co-funded by the Government of Tanzania and the United States Department of Labour (USDoL).

THE contribution of contractors in the building and development of human settlement and infrastructure cannot be over-emphasized. Most of the buildings and road network in Tanzania boasts of today, were constructed by contractors. The contribution of local contractors in these areas is commendable especially after the official registration of the Tanzania’s building contractors’ board which came into being in 1997. Since then, a lot has been done in the construction industry in Tanzania together with addressing the perils of the building contractors and the construction industry as a whole. Local contractors have many problems ranging from own making to those thought to be beyond their control. Problems associated with lack of equipment and capital can be considered own-making because of several reasons, the most common is due to lack of planning and coordination. Many contractors thought that contracting is an easy way of making money. Unfortunately, this is not the case because contracting is a professional work. The Contractors Registration Board (CRB) was established to deal with incompetent contractors and ensure provision of both quality and safe work. The prospects for local building contractors in Tanzania is bright if the stakeholders of the industry are determined to solve the existing problems for the need of both domestic and industrial buildings, such as roads, bridges, dams, communication facilities and many other works related to construction that is growing every other day. Apart from the growing market of services, the contractors have a well represented and competent board that is committed to their interests and which can ensure a strong public-private sector partnerships for their development.Engineers working in a building site

It is now time to look back and critically evaluate the status of a building contractor since the pre-independence days in Tanzania when the contracting business was mainly dominated by foreigners. Despite of the achievement that the local Contractors Registration Board has recorded the great number of the local contractors in the previous years, the board has also been able to reach out to nearly all contractors and engineering organizations in the country through industrial and zonal visits. Despite of the remarkable achievements attained so far in the building industry in Tanzania, still many construction workers in the country face imminent danger due to hazardous working conditions. Despite of a lot of development in the last decade in construction industry in Tanzania, there is a growing alarm over lack of equal development in awareness and safety and health facilities at different building sites in the country. A recently published detailed study by the CRB, puts forward a rejoinder on such horrible dangerous working conditions at various construction site in major urban centres in the country, handle piercing objects wearing neither helmet nor gloves. Results of the CRB descriptive survey conducted in 63 building sites in four regions in the country reveals that despite presence of laws and legislation binding directors to take health and safety precautions, none takes interest. Sometimes contractors are to blame. Some contractors take too much than they can bite prompting a contractor to share machinery and manpower. This hinders construction process as the contractor is forced to postpone some duties owing to lack of machinery. Payment of mobilization funds prior to construction can also delay projects. Sometimes contractors disappear immediately after they receive this fund. In most cases they abandon their equipment which might be worth very little in monetary terms. The survey shows that, Tanzanian local building contractors are not given enough priority and some are denied opportunity and challenges to demonstrate the competencies they posses. This in effects amounts to denying them the opportunities and challenges that would enhance their capabilities and thereby enable them to grow. Many contractors are not happy with the situation especially in the construction sector whereby foreigners are given preference at the expense of locals being marginalized, and further they are not happy with the differential treatment, in remuneration packages in favour of foreigners in some of the foreign firms. On the contrary, for job performance, it is amusing to see that some foreign firms are employing their fellow foreign building contractors for jobs which are easily manageable by locals. According to one local contractor based in the city of Dar es Salaam, this is dangerous, risky and denies employment rights to those with requisite qualifications. Cases are known where some of such foreigners being paid handsomely could not deliver except through exploiting the poorly, in very junior positions and claiming total credit of the delivered output because of hiring incompetent personnel on a try and error basis an aspect that in such cases even the quantity of the finished works is shoddy.

HEALTH and Safety in the construction industry is of great importance and its benefits cannot be overemphasized. However, neglect in observation of their rules and regulations has had devastating effects on both the industry and particular organizations. Research by International Labour Organization (ILO) has shown that construction industry poses more dangers concerning with health and safety than any other industry. Construction in Tanzania like in many countries in the world comes high in the comparative list of accidents. Nobody actually knows exactly how many construction workers die from accidents at work in the country. There are little data because accidents are not reported.Coupled with this, there is virtually no data on the extent of ill health among workers in the industry. In a study commissioned by the Contractors’ Registration Board (CRB) and done by the Occupational Safety & Health Authority (OSHA) in recent years, found that there had been 150 accidents on 63 sites in 12 months. Nevertheless, the ILO estimates that at least 60,000 fatalities occur at construction sites around the world every year. This means that, one fatal accident occurs every 10 minutes in the sector. It also means that around 17 percent of all fatalities at work (2 in every 6) are construction fatalities. According to Tanzania Civil Engineering & Contractors’ Association (TACECA), many hundreds of thousands more people in the country suffer serious injuries and ill-health because of bad and often illegal working conditions. Among them are the improper scaffolding procedures, defective equipment, wall and roof collapses, inadequate supervision, dropped loads, lack of information through warnings and inappropriate use of personal protective equipment (PPE). An observation in many construction sites in Tanzania carried out by TACECA for example indicated that health and safety are not observed especially among building contractors. Health & Safety can be defined as the state of having knowledge of the risks hazards and consequences associated with the construction site.Construction work in progress

There are various personal protective equipment designed to protect employees from work places. These are vital for safety reasons against any injuries or illnesses that might be caused as a result of contact with chemical radiological, physical, electrical, mechanical or other workplace hazards. In a move to ward off the existing problems at work places such as in construction sites, Tanzanian government formed an autonomous agency in the Ministry of Labour that was established in 2001 with a view to ensure health and safety of workers and their safe working environment in a more effective and efficient manner. The so-called Occupational Safety & Health Authority (OSHA) was set up with the aim of improving occupational health and safety practices for the well being of workers at work places in order to reduce accidents and occupational diseases and ultimately achieve better productivity.

OSHA is headed by the Chief Inspector who is assisted by division managers for occupational health and hygiene, safety and business divisions in the Ministry of Labour. Before its establishment, the agency was working as a separate entity under the department of labour called “Factories Inspectorate” which has been in operation since 1952. The firm’s main task is to improve working condition and ensure safety in different work places with the type of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) depending on the type of hazards available in a particular workplace. OSHA finds solution to some of the problems to no cost technology. OSHA has been very keen in promotion of safety and health wherever there are effects of hazards in work places by giving good practice and proper planning and service training of safety and health aspects especially in a project undertaken. In construction industry where there are so many activities, OSHA uses multi-disciplinary approach to execute duties whereby engineers and occupational Doctors as well as specialists are brought to work together so as to improve working condition. OSHA measures the overall work performance by observing progressive reduction of occupational illness and injuries, however, he urges various steps to be taken by employers of the concerned construction firm. One of the programs according to him, employers should conduct a hazard assessment of their workplaces to determine what hazards are present that require the use of PPE and which proves to be very efficient and effective as well as safety work cycle.Workers at a construction site with protective gears.

According to OSHA, the construction sector which generates more employment in Tanzania is an economic sector associated with proportionately many more accidents, injuries and diseases compared to other sectors. He says, many accidents at the construction sites are caused by poor housekeeping that results in loss of good materials and reduces efficiency at the construction sites. Materials that workers are exposed to includes synthetic minerals fibers, custom wood and wood dusts, solvents and sewage spills. Using personal protective equipment at work places is often essential and is the last resort of defense after engineering control of workplaces is maintained and the administrative controls.OSHA ‘s vision is to enable the country achieve a significant improvement in the health and safety of workers and achieve better productivity at workplaces. This will be achieved by becoming a competent government agency.

Monday, May 3, 2010

In the heady days of high finance, cheap credit and expensive oil, there was so much money sloshing around the world that it was difficult to find ways to spend it. Many developers, especially in the oil-enriched nations of the Middle East, drafted plans to build super skyscrapers, the likes of which the world had never seen. Had these plans come to fruition - by 2020, barely a decade from now - the tallest finished building in the world today, the 1,670 foot Taipei 101, would have been the 20th. So much for all that. A crashing global economy put an end to those dreams, at least for now, especially in the Middle East. Thanks to $145-a-barrel oil, the region was home to the most ambitious plans, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitats, which tracks the status of the world's tallest towers. Emirates in the Persian Gulf drew up plans to host 10 of the world's 20 tallest buildings by 2020. Six would have been in Dubai alone, despite the entire United Arab Emirates having a population of less than five million. Kuwait planned to build a massive $132bn planned city with a tower 3,284 feet high (or 1,001 metres, a reference to 1,001 Arabian Nights). The cost was roughly the same as the country's annual gross domestic product.Dubai collapsing towers.

In pictures: Ten super towers felled by the economyIn pictures: A week with Prince Al WaleedIn pictures: The best countries for business 2009In pictures: The world's ten tallest citiesIn pictures: Eight hidden treasures of the Middle East

As the flood of oil money dried up, along with the flood of cheap credit, cooler heads prevailed. Many of the Middle East's projects have been put on hold. Projects in other countries face roadblocks too. The tumbling cost of commodities battered Russia's economy, for example; the foundations for the 2,008-foot Moscow Tower, laid before the economy crumbled, are likely to turn into a series of more modest towers. The planned 2,000-foot Chicago Spire, a residential tower half again as tall as the Sears Tower, also ran into funding problems, as has New York City's redevelopment of the World Trade Centre site. Manhattan's financial services industry, decimated by the financial crisis, has little need for millions of new square feet of office space. A recent study commissioned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey estimated that with all the World Trade Centre projects completed, there could be so much office space in Manhattan that it would take until 2037 to fill it. Still, says Marshall Gerometta, database editor for the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitats, when the economy bounces back, many of these buildings will too. 'As of now I wouldn't want to say that any of these projects will be cancelled all together,' he says. 'But I am being a bit optimistic.'

(Vienna, 17 February 2009) The jury for the “Shenzhen 4 Tower in 1” Competition chaired by Mr. Arata Isozaki, selected COOP HIMMELB(L)AU’s design for Tower C, the new “Headquarter of China Insurance Group” as winning scheme. Other participants include Morphosis, Steven Holl Architects, Hans Hollein, MVRDV and FCJZ Atelier. The new “Headquarter of China Insurance Group” will be part of a lively business quarter in the heart of the Central District of Shenzhen made up of a carefully composed ensemble of unique, individual towers creating a landmark silhouette. The project is a high-rise structure with a height of approximately 200 m with 49 storeys. The footprint area has the size of 40 by 40 m. The required program is distributed vertically. A clear separation of public and private functions is given. All public functions are organized in the base building while the office program is situated in the tower. Headquarter of China Insurance Group Shenzhen

Semi public program like meeting rooms, conference center, recreation areas and gardens are concentrated in the middle of the building. This zone is designed to create a pattern of meeting facilities, gardens and recreation areas for all employees and become spaces for an exchange of knowledge and creativity and a synergy of form and function. The “Headquarter of China Insurance Group” is not only recognizable by its significant form but also by its façade. The design of the façade is driven by generation of energy. The second skin of the façade is shaped by climate conditions and inner functions. This skin includes photovoltaic cells to generate electricity and also cells to reduce excessive wind pressure, shade the sun and create multi media displays. Strategies employing the form of the building to assist natural ventilation together with the use of renewable energy sources (wind and solar power) assure an energy efficient design and reduce energy consumption and reliance on fossil fuel energy sources.

Zaha Hadid architects have designed 'the stone towers' - a 525,000sqm office and retail complex for the rooya group, which will be built in the stone park district of cairo, egypt. a five-star business hotel with serviced apartments, retail with food and beverage facilities and sunken landscaped gardens and plaza called the 'delta' is also included in the development.According to Mr. Hisham Shokri, CEO of rooya group, “there is a overwhelming need in Egypt for developments of the highest international standards required by the serious and growing investment climate of the country - ultimately contributing to making it a hub for multinationals in the region. Zaha Hadid architect stone towers in Cairo-Egypt

The stone towers needed an architect with daring ideas, innovation, international expertise and experience it needed Zaha Hadid.' “Ancient Egyptian stonework incorporates a vast array of patterns and textures that, when illuminated by the intense sunlight of the region, creates animated displays of light and shadow. The facades on the north and south elevations of each building within stone towers adopts a rich vocabulary of alternating protrusions, recesses and voids to enhance the deep reveal shadow lines that accentuate the curvatures of each building within the development and animate the project throughout the day. 'I am delighted to be working in Cairo. Zaha Hadid building inside view

I have visited Egypt many times and I have always been fascinated by the mathematics and arts of the Arab world. In our office we have always researched the formal concepts of geometry - which relates a great deal to the region’s art traditions and sciences in terms of algebra, geometry and mathematics. This research has informed the design for stone towers. with a large-scale project such as this, care must be taken to balance a necessary requirement for repetitive elements whilst avoiding an uncompromising repetition of static building masses.The architecture of stone towers pursues a geometric rhythm of similar, interlocking, yet individually differentiated building forms that creates a cohesive composition.' Zaha Hadid.Zaha Hadid from the inside

The original Jefferson Towers project – two 235 foot high-rise towers and parking – was approved by the Los Angeles City Planning Commission and the Los Angeles City Council in 1999. At the time of its original approval the only high rise proposal in the South Central Los Angeles area, the location for two urban riots in the last fifty years. Today the project continues to be the only tower proposal in that section of the city. The project carries with it the aspiration for a renewal of an area which has had more than its share of poverty, and the accompanying social pathologies, in comparison with other more affluent parts of Los Angeles. The only other significant new development project in that neighborhood was the Cineon Kodak air-rights project, completed in 1996 within the original 45 foot height limit, and considered to be the first phase of the re-development of the tower site. The towers are the second phase of that re-development. The conceptual strategy for the project was a structural strategy, and that strategy remains in the most recent version. A continuous system of curvilinear ribbons, neither beams, nor columns, wraps the two contiguous boxes – T shaped in plan – allowing a completely open, column-free interior. The ribbon language was developed in parallel with the Wexner Museum exhibition, the Dancing Bleachers (1998), at the time that installation was designed and installed. The towers project was dormant for several years, then resurrected in 2006 as a single tower with parking both above and below grade. After a complex series of Los Angeles City reviews the project was re-approved and re-designed. A primary impetus for the return of the project was the advent of a surface, passenger rail system, running from downtown to the University of Southern California, south of downtown, then west along Jefferson Boulevard to a stop at Jefferson and La Cienega. Eric Owen moss architects, Glass Tower Los-Angels in USA

That intersection is a primary crossing of major north-south (La Cienega) and east-west (the 10 freeway) traffic axes in Los Angeles. The project site is a block north-west of the train stop, and sits adjacent to the train route as the train turns north to a second stop, several blocks west of the site. The train makes the tower site readily accessible by surface rail, and that development convinced the owners of the economic viability of the tower building. The project, because of its height and the relatively low buildings that surround the site, will have enormous prominence both as an object on an otherwise 45 foot high skyline, and as an opportunity to provide long distance views in every direction for the office building’s tenants. Both the opportunity to build a free-standing tower with no intervening obstacles to views of the project, and vistas from inside were also persuasive arguments for the revival and re-design of the building. Both the new tower and the new passenger railway and train stop are likely to become prominent symbols of the rebirth of South Central Los Angeles. The project is T shaped in plan, with the top of the T adjoining the railway right-of-way to the west of the tracks. The current planning concept includes the same square footage area as in the original, two tower scheme, but in the current plan, the entire square footage program -- 210,000 square feet -- is placed within a single tower. The intersection of Jefferson and National is re-designed both to facilitate the location of the train tracks, the adjoining streets, and to organization of automobile entry of from the signaled intersection. Behind the project to the east is a parking structure with three levels below grade and two levels above. The garage will be partially covered with a park composed of triangulated, paved and sloping grass plains that can be used for informal gatherings and outdoor exhibits and presentations, and a south facing horizontal surface of photo-voltaic panels. Pedestrians leaving the train station to the east, walk along the east elevation of the garage and the tower, then proceed up a stair or elevator, over a bridge, to the second floor tower elevator lobby. The new tower, with floor plates of 20,000 square feet per floor, is supported on a structure of curvilinear steel tube ribbons, two feet by five feet, filled with concrete. The ribbon system is located external to the floors, so the floor interiors are entirely open and flexible. The ribbons are resolved at the base of the tower as a series of intersecting hyperbolic concrete support walls that geometrically join ribbons on one elevation of the box with ribbons on the opposite side. Rather than the conventional single floor to floor height, typical of most tower structures, this project offers three alternative floor to floor heights to its tenants, one at 13 feet six inches, one at 16 feet, and one at 24 feet. The 24 foot volume occurs three times, and allows the construction of a glass enclosed, acoustically segregated mezzanine floor, should the tenant require such space. The T tower has an external elevator and service core on the east elevation, and two exit stair cases positioned at the east and south extremities of the floor plans. Shear loads are shared between the rigid frames formed by the intersection of the ribbons, and the three circulation and service cores.

Asymptote Architecture was founded by principals Hani Rashid and Lise Anne Couture in 1989. Since Asymptote’s founding the New York-based firm has been at the forefront of technological innovation in the field of architecture and design and received international acclaim for visionary building designs and large-scale master plans. Asymptote is currently working on a broad range of commissions at sites in the United States, Europe, the United Arab Emirates and Asia including three landmark towers in Tbilisi, Georgia; commercial office towers in Budapest and Prague and the World Business Center Busan in Busan, South Korea, slated to be one of the tallest buildings in Asia upon its completion in 2011. In addition to the Strata Tower, projects designed by Asymptote now under construction include an innovative, high-end condominium building in New York City and a 500-room hotel in the United Arab Emirates. In 2004 Hani Rashid and Lise Anne Couture were awarded the Frederick Kiesler Prize for Architecture and the Arts given in recognition of exceptional contributions to the progress and merging of art and architectureAsymptote Strata Towers

Construction has reached the half way point for 'capital gate' tower designed by New York firm RMJM architects located in Abu Dhabi the slanted tower will consist of a large internal atrium including a tea lounge and swimming pool suspended 263 feet above the ground. Due to its posture, the 35-story capital gate is being constructed on top of a 7-foot-deep concrete base with a dense mesh of reinforced steel. The steel exoskeleton known as the diagrid sits above an extensive distribution of 490 piles that have been drilled 100 feet underground to accommodate the gravitational, wind and seismic pressures caused by the lean of the building. The iconic tower will be the centerpiece of the capital centre development, an 2.2 billion USD business and residential micro city being constructed around the thriving Abu Dhabi national exhibition centre.

Introduction:Forty-storey, luxury residential building in Abu Dhabi. The Strata Tower is scheduled for completion in 2011 and, at a height of 160 meters, will be the tallest building in Aldar Properties PJSC's prestigious Al Raha Beach development. Construction begins on Asymptote’s Strata Tower in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Abu Dhabi, UAE—The Strata Tower, a forty-story, luxury residential building designed by architects Hani Rashid and Lise Anne Couture of Asymptote, has broken ground on Al Raha Beach and is now under construction. The tower is scheduled for completion in early 2011 and, at a height of 160 meters, will be the tallest building in the Al Dana precinct, the centerpiece of Aldar Properties PJSC’s prestigious Al Raha Beach development. The project and development was showcased at Cityscape Abu Dhabi from May 13–15, 2008. The landmark Strata Tower is designed to signify a dignified and important future for Abu Dhabi and the region. As a signature architectural statement, the Strata Tower’s articulate, striking physical presence seeks to encapsulate meaning through the use of abstract form drawn from both local cultural landscapes and motifs and dynamic forces of global influence. The Strata Tower’s design utilizes primarily mathematical means in its design to achieve both a poetic, as well as highly pertinent, architecture for the UAE, a region in flux with ambitions for continued rapid growth. The Strata Tower’s innovative form was created using state-of-the-art, advanced parametric modeling tools and techniques from the onset of the design process to the production phase. The building’s design emerged from various influences and factors including economies of production and fabrication with special consideration given to environmental sustainability. Sophisticated computer modeling and tools were utilized to produce the building’s intelligent, environmentally responsive louver system that is held in a unique, cantilevered exoskeleton structure. The exoskeleton veils the entire tower in a shimmering curvilinear form set against Abu Dhabi’s surrounding desert and sea, embracing and reflecting the ever-changing light and atmospheres that enfold and contain it. As architecture the Strata Tower resists being an overt, singular gesture reliant on a set meaning or association. Rather, the mathematical properties used, not unlike those in the manifestation of the arabesque or abstract calligraphy, give the building its supreme elegance, prominence and potential for meaning and significance.RMJM architects, capital gate tower in Abu Dhabi

In the world today, technology in building is coming up with new inventions that creates the beauty of the magnificence of high rising buildings. Glazing work is commonly applied in construction as the glass materials used are for decorations and other purposes. One important aspect of the use of glass materials in buildings which are commonly put on façade is that, their presence provides an appealing outlook of the building which can be seen from far a distance. Apart from being decorative, glasses are useful in buildings as they regulate the high amount of sunlight which could pass through the windows straight to the rooms, thus they control the intensity of sunlight and reduce the solar gain. You can see examples of some of the few buildings set in overseas countries, notably in Far East, Middle East and the United States of America. The technology which has been used is more technical and of the high standards that suites architectural designs.

Here is some information from Zaha Hadid Architects:

Site AnalysisThe Farrer Court site is located in a strategic position within the residential area of Singapore, close to the amenities of Holland Road and the future MRT station. The absence of high rise buildings in the near surroundings and direct connection to the main traffic route of Farrer Road make this a prestigious and highly visible site across the whole city.

Site ProposalZaha Hadid’s Proposal for the Farrer Court site is generated by the study of the existing alignments and the main axis surrounding the site, which are brought in and connected to generate a series of construction lines highly connected to the neighbourhood. The ground landscape level is visualized as a very green layer, which wants to emphasize the presence of florid vegetation in the Singapore’s climate.The site levels are re-organized into a series of terraced plateaus to maximise the area dedicated to communal site amenities. The orientation and placement of the buildings is optimized in relation to the local environment as well as to maximize views out towards the surrounding city and landscape.

Building ProposalThe program is organized into 7 towers, which grow from sunken private gardens within the site landscape. The lower floors kink in to highlight the point where buildings meet the ground, enabling yet a greater open area and the creation of highly private gardens which are quite unique given the scale and density of the development. The towers are subdivided into petals according to the number of residential units per floor, with a common principle a series of diverse and unique towers can be generated. The petals are expressed in three dimensions thanks to vertical cuts which give definition to the building’s façades and, at the same time, allow for cross ventilation of most of the flats. The buildings culminate at the top with a series of fingers stepped at different heights, which blend the transition between the architectural fabric and the sky. Through rotating the buildings across the site, and the careful use of balconies and façade paneling a combination of self similar towers produce an incredible amount of diversity across the development.Zaha Hadid architects Farrer court in Singapore

AWARD 1

I won the second prize in policy category of the African Information society Initiative ( AISI) awards 2004 which is annually organized by the United Nations- Economic Commission for Africa ( UNECA) based in Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia. On the first photo above standing with other awardees after the Ceremony at the National Settlers monument in Grahamstown, South Africa.This was during the 8th Highway Africa Conference.The second photo shows the cross section of Jounalists from different African countries who attended the ceremony.

AWARD 2

I also won the AISI-GKP/SDC Media Award special reporting on WSIS process and Africa, and conferred with the award in Tunis, Tunisia during WSIS summit in 2005. See the photo above.

AWARD 3

Winner on the Media Competition on writing about " Stigma denial and Discrimination" associated with HIV/AIDS. This was organized by theAssociation of Journalists Against Aids in Tanzania ( AJAAT). On the Photo above President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete of Tanzania, ( then the Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation) was the guest of honour during the award giving ceremony.This was at Maelezo auditorium in Dar-es-Salaam September 2005.

AWARD 4

Winner on the Media Competition on writing about "Vulnerable Children" associated with HIV/AIDS This was organized by the Association of Journalists Against Aids in Tanzania ( AJAAT)

AWARD 5

Winner of the National ICT Media Award organized By SWOPNET in the Country. On the photo above Morogoro Regional Commissioner, Brigadier General ( Rt) Saidi Kalembo was the guest of honour during the award giving ceremony which was held at New Sarvoy Hotel in morogoro town.I was awarded a Mobile phone and a tape-recorder.

AWARD 6

I participated in the Media Competition in writing about VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing) in Tanzania which was held between July 15th and October 30th 2008 whereby I emerged among the top five winners. The competition was under the program known as “Tanzania bila Ukwimwi inawezekana” which literally means, Tanzania without AIDS disease transmission is possible”. This is a program which was organizedby the Association of Journalists Against AIDS in Tanzania (AJAAT) under TACAIDS funding. In the photo, I am being presented with a certificate of participation by the Chairman of the Tanzania Commission for AIDS (TACAIDS) Dr. Fatma Mrisho in a colorful ceremony which was held on 22nd December 2008 at Tanzania Information Centre in Dar es Salaam.

AWARD 7

AWARD 8

AWARD 9

I was among the top 17 best selected students who excelled in their final examinations of the 2010/2011 academic year and awarded with the Vice-Chancellor’s prize. I scored 4.5 GPA (First Class) in BA in Journalism. Above I am being given a certificate by the Chairman of the Open University of Tanzania Board of Senate. Standing at the centre facing camera is the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Tolly Mbwette. Extreme left partly hidden is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Professor Elifas Bisanda. This occasion took place during the convocation meeting, a day before the graduation day at the prospective permanent headquarter of the Open University of Tanzania which is currently under construction at Bungo-Kibaha in Coast region 40 kilometers away west of Dar es Salaam city.